Gardes Françaises

The Gardes Françaises were a military regiment of the French Army that existed from 1563 to 1792. The guards were a regiment of the Maison du Roi military household of the King of France, and the regiment had 9,000 troops when it was formed by Charles IX of France in 1563, being divided into 30 companies of 300 fusiliers each. At the start of the French Revolution in 1789, the Gardes Françaises supported the revolutionaries, while the Garde du Corps and Swiss Guards components of the royal military household supported the king. The Gardes formed the core of the new French National Guard, and they were dissolved in 1792 with the abolition of the monarchy.